Mid-West Campaign
Session Seventy-Three

Tuesday, 5 June 2001

Meanwhile, Artemis Black arrives at the Wichita HQ in his stretched limousine. He discovers a rusty old car parked in his parking space. Entering an empty HQ, he descends to the Blackcave using one of the fire poles. There is an inch of sand on the floor and a tumbleweed blows down the corridor. He telephones Jane and gives her a stern dressing down about the state of the HQ, their progress on various cases, his disbelief that they haven't run the I-Ching they got at Christmas through he supercomputers. Jane stammers like a small school child and then blames Benedict (after all, she's only just been placed in charge).

Jane starts to tell Artemis everything that has been happening recently (particularly to Ben), but Artemis stops her and orders her to come in. He then settles down behind Jane's desk. The bell to the HQ rings and Artemis buzzes in Agent Clint Stone. One of the numerous clones of Elijah Stone (and possibly the original), Clint has been reassigned to the mid-west team by Artemis.

While Clint is getting comfortable, Artemis telephones Dominic Rocaan on the west coast. He asks for Dominic to send agents Ecks and Campbell-Robson to Wichita. In the absence of Chuck (who Artemis plans to track down and make an example of) they are the only people who can run the i-ching through the computers. Also he wants them to sweep the place for bugs.

They then hear a clunk in the medical bay and Artemis and Stone head down to investigate. It seems that the blood analyser and toxicology analyser has been vigorously cleaned with pine disinfectant. The machines are spewing foam and totally ruined. There are also a number of implements out that indicate an autopsy has been performed. Checking the cameras reveal the perpetrator to be Dr Nick Riviera - new member of the north-east evidence response team. Artemis phones him and gives him a stern talking to. Riviera explains that he had a bug in his arm and had to remove it. He usually has a nurse clean up after him.

Jane and Benedict return to headquarters. Both are curious as to why Artemis is even here. Artemis said that he felt the need to take a more hands on roll. Jane and Benedict start to explain to Artemis and the new Stone what has been happening with the north east team over the last few months. Artemis stops them. He thinks the place is bugged. They know that there is a mole on the team, and everyone seems to be aware of what the mid-west team are doing. He says that Ecks and Campbell-Robson are coming to look for bugs, and in the meantime they should decamp to his limousine in the outside car park.

Once in the car, Artemis explains that he doesn't trust the east coast team. All the other teams have been recently formed, but the east coast team have been in existence forever. He thinks that their paranoia over doppelgangers is the perfect cover. Ashamiko's desire to plant bugs everywhere is also suspect. He wants to get to the bottom of this. Jane suggests that Michael Levin knows who the mole is, and that if they were to supply Levin with the same information he would probably tell them.

They deduce that Levin must know all about the mid-west cases because he is spying on the mole. Levin would only spy on someone with brain-bug connections. Artemis authorises that Jane approach Levin and discover the identity of the mole. He also contacts retired agent Walter Crondheim and asks him to start looking into Ashamiko's background. He hopes that Crondheim is sufficiently far removed from the conspiracies for his investigations to be undetected.

Now Jane begins her account, placing particular emphasis on the growing menace of the brain bug fleet, their history (as far the agents understand it), Winterset, the downed craft, Georgeson, Raphael, NTOPFOR, the Sil and exactly what has happened to Benedict over the last few days. Jane thinks it is all connected to the Game. She surmises that she is the puppet of the Sil, and they are trying to 'help' her by investigating and tooling up her companions. She is beginning to fear for her sister, and the pregnancy. However, despite all that is going on, Jane says that they have to try and clear their backlog of cases otherwise they are likely to receive unwelcome scrutiny from other parts of the FBI.

After listening carefully to all of this Artemis makes some decisions, and the group brainstorm what is going on and what their next moves should be.

Concerning the brain bugs: Artemis wants to know why the bugs in Winterset specifically wanted Elayna Lewis (case WNT075). An investigation of her background shows a surprising number of pilots on her mother's side. This bears further investigation, and Artemis suggests a trip to Winterset in the near future to speak to Georgeson and Raphael (if possible). Jane thinks an alliance with them would be a good move despite what NTOPFOR believes.

On the subject of NTOPFOR, Artemis agrees that an alliance would be a good thing. However, they have to find out how much the agents think they know about the organisation tallies with the truth. After all, they only have Benedict's Sil-induced visions to go on. Maybe they could arrange things so that members of NTOPFOR worked with the evidence response team as advisors.

Their discussion is cut short by the arrival of Bradley Ecks and Bruce Campbell-Robson. They have driven from the airport in an enormous red-neck-mobile, and Bradley is slightly shaken by the drive. After greetings, the two set to work searching for bugs while the rest of the team return to Artemis's car.

Artemis hypnotises Benedict to try and discover exactly what happened to him over the past two days. At 4:30am on the morning of 4 June, Benedict was dreaming of his mother. At 5:30am he was still dreaming. At 5:33am he wakes up. He is in a field underneath a bio-dome of some sort. A black sky is visible through the roof of tessellated hexagons. He is lying on his back on the blue/green grass. He can hear voices all around him (possibly above him) and can smell lavender on the air. He seems to be lying there for about five minutes when he hears his alarm go off. He is back in the real world. It is 5:33am.

At the end of each version of 4 June, Benedict finds himself back in the field. Once more he can hear the voices. Artemis asks him to have a look around the field, but Benedict cannot see anything more. He sketches the constellations he can see through the bio-dome. These are later shown to Dr Ecks. Ecks is certain that these are not stars that could be seen from the Earth, but he will need to run some simulations to find out exactly where they.

Taking advantage of the situation, Artemis hypnotises Benedict to approach Peter Ellis Dean's car and perform some forensics on it. Benedict has no trouble approaching. He finds a skeleton in the boot and begins to bag it accordingly. Artemis tells Benedict to return and he comes out of the hypnosis and is completely affected by the car again. That's Benedict out of the picture for a few days.

Artemis throws some surgical gloves filled with holy water at the car and then approaches. He is unaffected at first and thinks that the holy water worked. But then the power of the car overtakes him, and Artemis orders everyone to order a pizza and sit down to dinner.

While a frustrated Jane tries to tell Artemis exactly what has happened to him, Clint Stone begins to look at Hamblin's book that was left at the end of Benedict's bed by the Sil. One page is completely covered in gold. Underneath the gold (written on the page) are a number of complex symbols. Stone traces them out onto a piece of paper and he disappears! Before any one can react, the agent reappears.

He says that he was teleported to a White Place where he met archangel Raphael who was reading the Winterset Times while drinking coffee and eating a doughnut. Raphael warned him against using the symbols. He said that Stone had been transported to the Ninth Sphere. When the symbols are written down they open a doorway to another reality. Covering the runes in gold prevents this from happening. Raphael adds that the order that they are drawn determines the destination. Stone is sure he can remember the order he transcribed the runes, but no one is inclined to let him try again in case he teleports himself to hell or to Cleveland. The symbols he drew are now completely burned out.

Wednesday, 6 June 2001

Artemis, Jane and Stone arrive at work in the early morning. Artemis is still using Jane's desk and office. Benedict calls in sick, and spends the day watching trash-TV. Jane explains that this is the lingering affect of the car from the bayou. Artemis's has a throbbing headache as a result of his own encounter with the car and believes Jane. He decides to order up a bomb-disposal robot to search the car. It will take 1-2 days for it to arrive.

The agents head downstairs and find Ecks and Campbell-Robson at the super computers playing computer games. The pair have been up all night (mostly playing games). When pressed, they produce the six bugs they found in the building. Bruce says that the bugs are automatically turned on when agents enter the building. The bugs only transmit 40-60 metres so they are probably passing the information to a relay station somewhere in the train yard. This will prove impossible to find.

The agents suspect that whoever placed the bugs will break in to place more as soon as HQ is empty. Bruce and Ecks plant their own bugs and hidden cameras so the team can at least see who is doing it. Some way is needed to prevent this intrusion as the electronic measures appear inadequate. Using the ghosts of the dead railworkers would be an idea, but for that they would need Benedict to admit he wasn't the Loa of the Dead, and he is unwilling to cooperate (at least today).

As the only computer boffins in the place, Ecks and Bruce are asked to run details of the constellation Ben sketched and the book of i-ching through the computers. Artemis produces some of his patented Artemis Black's Wakey-Wakey Juice. After one swig, Ecks is on the ceiling.

Running the i-ching program causes the lights in HQ to flicker. It is taking all the power from all the machines to run this. While the west coast agents go to bed, Artemis, Jane and Clint discuss their next move. It has to be Winterset.

The more they think of Winterset the odder the situation is. If the population of the town are all direct descendants of the alien Signai, then is it possible professions were passed down in the genetic memory? Were all of Elayna Lewis's antecedents pilots, for example? If so then maybe she had the coordinates of where the rest of the Signai were fleeing to. Some Signai might have reached that destination - they believe Isis will come back for them.

Artemis wonders if Georgeson really is a SCHULT equivalent as he appears. Artemis contacts SCHULT and asks how old Georgeson is. When SCHULT replies that he is 20-30% older than SCHULT himself then they know they have to see him. Georgeson is actually expecting the call, and demands the agents come to see him immediately.

The group collect Benedict and Jane speaks with her sister Danni who is now less than two weeks from her due date. Danni doesn't want any more tests and thinks that Jane is overly protective because she is a doctor. Jane despairs. The agents then leave from Wichita airport and arrive in Des Moines at 6pm. An hour later they are in Winterset where they are shown into Georgeson's house by his butler, Reeves.

The are taken to a room on the top floor of the building (this is the same window that Dubieniec was watching - see case NW988). With little preamble the agents and Georgeson begin to speak of the dire threat to Earth form the brain bugs and the Sil. The agents ask many questions. Georgeson's responses are as follows:

He says that Raphael will not directly help the agents. He is not in the game so he can offer advice and answer questions, but if he directly interferes then other archangels will also interfere. The obvious result of this would be the sterilisation of all life on Earth.

The real name of the Brain Bugs is the Shaggai. They are not more technologically advanced than the Signai. They defeated the Signai through force of numbers, not force of arms. The Signai fled their home but there were Shaggai infiltrators on board this ship. That is what caused it to crash on Earth. So the Shaggai have been on Earth for as long as the Signai have. Many on Earth have known about the Shaggai for generations. Georgeson states there was no specific destination in mind in the Signai's original journey. He then tells the story of Signai history:

The Signai were space explorers, but were naïve and weaponless. They were unprepared for their first meeting with the Shaggai. The explorers came back to the Signai homeworld with two infiltrators. These were extricated and captured. The Signai studied them, they even tried to give them therapy. The Shaggai feed on chemicals in the brain. They also have a very odd genetic structure. They had obviously been genetically engineered - created - by another race.

The Shaggai were spread across the galaxy in a great wave. They descended upon planets drained their natural resources and moved on. Behind the wave, in a fleet of ships, were the Shaggai's creators: the Sil. The Sil were as technologically advanced as the Signai in their own way, but far more aggressive.

Another alien race was called the K'tai. These are the doppelgangers that the east coast team is so worried about. The K'tai are extremely advanced in biological science. They managed to hide from the Shaggai wave, but many were captured by the Sil. Some K'tai were rescued by the Signai fleet during its exodus. There were some K'tai on the vessel that crashed into Earth, which is why there are K'tai on Earth. Because of the their physiology, the K'tai are immune to possession by the brain bugs.

As the centuries passed the Shaggai got away from the Sil and are now ravaging on their own cognisance. The Sil don't really care about this. The Shaggai reproduce very slowly and are little threat to the Sil. The one exception is that the Sil despise magic and if they come across any groups of Shaggai using magic they will destroy them. If the Sil come to Earth to destroy such Shaggai then it will be the end of the world.

Georgeson's vessel was fleeing the Shaggai and the Sil. It was carrying numerous Signai colonists and K'tai. Members of the Shaggai possessed some crew members and sabotaged the ship. Georgeson deployed the four lifepods that crashed elsewhere on earth. The main ship came down here. Georgeson then erected the darkshield device (the forcefield) around the craft.

It was this obsidian-like field that the agents saw in the mine underneath Winterset. The Shaggai were trying to break through the field (entirely unsuccessfully). Georgeson admits that Elayna Lewis was the direct descendent of the captain of the vessel. He says that the descendents of the officers still have authority over him, and that if Elayna gave him an order he would have to obey it. He has kept this information to himself.

As for the other four lifepods… the sentient computerised holographic utilities are not like Georgeson himself. They are less sophisticated and not designed to have been switched on for so long. In essence they have all gone a bit peculiar.

The lifepod under Los Angeles is intimately known the agents. Schult's failure to accept who he is, is a great limitation. It should be noted that Schult is compelled to feed all the information from all the West Coast cases to Georgeson.

There is a lifepod under Athens. The computer there masqueraded as the Oracle of Delphi for many years. It now works the Greek government as a tour guide.

The lifepod under Luxor is a "leaking sieve" and Georgeson has had to completely shut down the computer there. For many years it pretended to be a god called Horus-Re and has gone very, very mad. The Horu'ur mentioned in Hamblin's Hieroglyphics were the Signai in the lifepod.

The final lifepod is under Kiev in the Ukraine. This is deep in enemy territory as the area is strong hold of he Shaggai (just as the party suspected). The computer is running quiet and the twenty-four Signai who were originally on the craft are still alive in suspended animation. Georgeson has not sent any signals to the craft for fear of alerting the Shaggai to its presence.

Georgeson says that he was using Dynamicorp to subtlety advance the level of human technology to a point where they could fight the Shaggai. However, the Shaggai fleet is arriving about two hundred years earlier than he initially calculated so that plan has been shot out of the water. His ship has few armaments, and nothing that could stand up to a Shaggai fleet (that is why they were running in the first place). As a computer program he has no imagination and cannot come up with ideas of his own. He is prepared to help the agents, but he needs some sign that they have a hope in hell of success. He is intrigued by Levin's neuro-virus and says that he could easily mass produce it… if it worked.

Jane sees a grand alliance between themselves and the Signai computers and the Department of Agriculture. But each successive notion of how to fight the Shaggai seems more unlikely than the first - particularly as all of Jane's ideas make use of Hamblin's magic door.

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